Firefighters blog

Funny Personal Story

Well, here's one I won't forget.

At about 3:00 a.m. we were dispatched as the second in company on an occupied double-wide mobile home fire. Having just been awakened from a deep sleep, I had to pee like a race horse, but not wanting to waste a second, I jumped on the squad and off we went.

Every bump was agonizing, and there were a lot of them!

We arrived less than a minute after the first in engine and had heavy fire showing from about 1/3 of the trailer. We immediately began a primary which was negative, then we assisted the engine crews with extinguishment. About 6 or 8 minutes or so into the call, we had the fire knocked down. I could no longer function...I was about to explode! If I didn't find a place to go I was going to have to let loose in my bunker pants.

Still almost zero visibility from smoke, I finally stumbled into a bathroom and aimed for what was either the toilet or the tub...At that point it didn't matter.
Aaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhh relief at last!!!!! I must have been going for a good 20 seconds, when suddenly the wind shifted, the air cleared, and I found myself peeing into the broken remains of a toilet bowl...no tank...and no exterior wall remaining behind it! Just 15-20 onlookers about 25 feet away...A couple of them were pointing directly at me!

I heard a few chuckles from the crowd and what I thought was a smattering of applause.

I refastened the fly on the bunker pants and slowly backed out into the hallway, not letting any of them see my name on the back of my coat.

Good thing we're all fairly anonymous in full gear and a mask!

I didn't tell the guys at the station the story until weeks later for fear of getting a nickname I would most likely still have today!